Advertising costs money. Before spending your hard-earned dollars on advertising time, you can test ads on focus groups. These small gatherings of 10 to 15 people can give feedback that may cause you to rework an ad campaign, scrap it altogether or move ahead with it as is. Using varied techniques for eliciting responses from focus groups will help you get a well-rounded picture of how well your ads work.

Informal Discussion

You can engage your focus group in a conversation. Set objectives for this conversation, such as finding out whether participants would buy your product or service based on your advertising, but don't make the conversation formal. If you create an encouraging atmosphere where you neither reward nor penalize participants for their opinions, the casual discussion can be a useful tool for getting honest reactions.

Depth Interviews

You can deepen your understanding of focus group responses through depth interviews. This technique probes for understanding of respondents' reactions to symbols, images and metaphors in advertising. You can also ask for nuances of emotional reactions. For example, instead of settling for "I don't like it," you can ask why a person doesn't like your ad. The resulting information may guide you in improving the ad by simply eliminating one offending element. The depth interview can also reveal bias on the part of the person viewing the ad or listening to it. This could help hone your focus on the target audience, rather than changing the advertisement.

Blogger Suggestions

You can offer a draft or mock-up of your advertising pieces to bloggers in your field. Ask them for suggestions and responses. This technique creates a focus group of informed, interested people who can help guide your advertising choices. The bloggers may write about your upcoming ad campaign, and may also provide crucial feedback. You have to keep in mind that bloggers are not technically customers, so view their feedback as insider tips rather than customer responses.

Naturalistic Observation

It's effective to observe focus group members interacting with your advertising. You may find, for example, that though respondents indicated on a questionnaire that they would prefer to see ads online, they are glued to the television screen when you run your ad during the focus session. Similarly, a young group may claim they prefer animation in ads, but when given a choice, they actually look at print ads longer.

About the Author

Kevin Johnston writes for Ameriprise Financial, the Rutgers University MBA Program and Evan Carmichael. He has written about business, marketing, finance, sales and investing for publications such as "The New York Daily News," "Business Age" and "Nation's Business." He is an instructional designer with credits for companies such as ADP, Standard and Poor's and Bank of America.